Air Conditioning Blowing Hot Air

[NOLA_Mike]

I would give the center personnel the benefit of doubt (they lied to you is a pretty strong statement, IMO).

While I've never had it happen either and I consider the combination of heat and humidity in New Orleans to be some of the worst in the country (along with Houston, Tampa, etc.) and very taxing on A/C systems in general I can say I have never been in 118 degree heat in either of my Teslas.

I could see a situation wherein the system is not 100% but maybe 95% (maybe a small amount of refrigerant has leaked out or the filter is partially clogged or other issue) and under most circumstances it seems to work fine but under extreme conditions it can't handle cooling both the cabin and the battery and then "shunts cooling to the battery".

I too find it hard to believe that Tesla designed a system that, when working properly, can't handle cooling both the occupants and the battery under most any conditions.

Mike

 

[ZBB]

I think they lied to you. (gasp, a carmaker's service organization lied to a customer! that's probably the FIRST TIME that's ever happened...)

Again, if Tesla deliberately designed a car that diverts cabin AC to the battery, leaving the occupants roasting, they'd be run out of business. The lawsuits would end them if nothing else. Imagine a baby dying in a Tesla because the AC shut off and it suffered hypothermia before the owner could get the car to a service station - if they were 10 miles from the nearest exit.

Trust me… when its 110F+ and the A/C cuts off, there is no chance of anyone dying from hypothermia. Perhaps you meant to type "hyperthermia"?

Anyway… Your post is rather over the top. @AmpedRealtor reported a loss of AC for 5 minutes. Even at 118F, I'm sure his cabin temp never went over 80F. And this sounds like a fluke. He and I are both from AZ -- and we experience months where the highs exceed 100F (basically June to Sept, with some 100+ days in May and Oct). This is the first time he's ever experienced this. My own A/C problem last Sat was also a one-time event (and Tesla worked on the car a couple days later to correct the problem they detected -- and even though my car is out of warranty, I was not charged).

For @AmpedRealtor, Tesla service checked his logs and confirmed that they saw what happened -- and stated that the car diverted cooling to the battery. That's not lying. That's honesty. They also stated nothing appears wrong with his car. This is a one-time thing (for 5 minutes). If it happens again, I'm sure they will look further -- he and I use the same service center and the crew that works there is great*.


* The manager and key service advisors at Scottsdale have been there since the Roadster-only days -- even before AZ officially had a service center (there was an unofficial 'temporary' location where they kept the Ranger trucks and did some on-site service until less than 3 years ago). I've never experienced a "dealer service" department where anyone but the service advisor even talks to the customers. There are multiple people at Scottsdale that have gotten to know me a little bit -- and some of the owners even more.

 

[davie_100]

My vehicle is with Buena Park SC as of this morning. We'll see what they come back with but I did get the speech about AC cooling the battery. Regardless, they took my time logs and are diagnosing. This is unacceptable as it's supposed to be our family car and having a 3 year kid in a carseat at 110F is asinine.

Since I'm 3 weeks new CPO I just keep emphasizing that to the service guy because I'm sure after you're old the service guys dont care as much.

If I get a final answer that it's normal and nothing requiring fixing, I'm not sure what I will do. But I've started a log for documentation purposes.

When it happened to me, we stopped for almost 30 minutes, ran the reboots, and it still didnt fix it. Total duration of hot air was about 2 - 2.5 hours.

 

[Spidy]

Funny... we saw the SAME exact thing on our new X --- having owned our S for nearly three years with this never happening I was surprised... even more surprised when a full power reset solved the problem 2x -- really felt like a bug /vs/ system failure.

I thought the issue was a sensor only older Model S had, wouldn't the Model X then just like the newer Mode S don't have this sensor?

 

[Fxyz]

Here is the reply I received from Tesla Tech Support. You will be the judge. In my case, the AC was just blowing hot ambient air (I tried all different settings several times). I also did not receive any Alert. 110 deg SoCal too hot? I think it is typical temperature of many places in US and abroad.

"Thank you for contacting Tesla Motors Technical Support.


The Air conditioning system will work as the technician at Buena Park described. Do you remember if you saw an alert during this time that AC was reduced? Typically when the system directs the AC to the vehicle systems you would get an alert advising the actions being taken by the car. My understanding is that

The AC would be reduced but not fully turned off.


I have forwarded a concern to the service center so they can look further into this issue and see if it was working as designed. Perhaps the vehicle systems

Were so hot it needed to use all the AC resources for maintenance. The service center will follow up with you shortly for confirmation.


Sincerely,

Tim Tsuda |Technical SupportSpecialist"

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Did you get any message displayed when that happened?

I've never had that happen in my S -- and the A/C issue I had last Sat was different (and required a fix at the Service Center)...

No alerts.

I think they lied to you. (gasp, a carmaker's service organization lied to a customer! that's probably the FIRST TIME that's ever happened...)

Again, if Tesla deliberately designed a car that diverts cabin AC to the battery, leaving the occupants roasting, they'd be run out of business. The lawsuits would end them if nothing else. Imagine a baby dying in a Tesla because the AC shut off and it suffered hypothermia before the owner could get the car to a service station - if they were 10 miles from the nearest exit.

Nothing of the kind. Tesla diagnosed my issue specifically by examining the car's logs. I provided them with the day and approximate time when the issue occurred. They reviewed my logs within 24 hours and responded back that the behavior was normal and they could see the cooling being diverted to other systems without any faults. I was driving at 85 MPH in 115-118 degree heat from Vegas to Phoenix at the time. I have never in the past three years driven under those conditions, and in all three years of ownership the AC performance was reduced just this one time and only for 5 minutes - out of 47,000 miles driven.

The AC was maintaining a 70 degree internal temperature and blew warm-ish air for 5 minutes, which probably raised the interior temp to 75 degrees before it resumed blowing ice cold air. No babies died during my trip. Or puppies.

For @AmpedRealtor, Tesla service checked his logs and confirmed that they saw what happened -- and stated that the car diverted cooling to the battery. That's not lying. That's honesty. They also stated nothing appears wrong with his car. This is a one-time thing (for 5 minutes). If it happens again, I'm sure they will look further -- he and I use the same service center and the crew that works there is great*.

^^ 100% true, thank you. Tesla confirmed no issues, no abnormal behavior. I even mentioned the dummy sensor and they told me that was not the issue, in my case it was a simple matter of the car trying its best to manage all of its cooling needs. I imagine driving 5 hours in 118º heat at 80-90 MPH is not something most people do on a regular basis.

* The manager and key service advisors at Scottsdale have been there since the Roadster-only days -- even before AZ officially had a service center (there was an unofficial 'temporary' location where they kept the Ranger trucks and did some on-site service until less than 3 years ago). I've never experienced a "dealer service" department where anyone but the service advisor even talks to the customers. There are multiple people at Scottsdale that have gotten to know me a little bit -- and some of the owners even more.

Nicholas and his group provide the best service experience I have ever encountered, and thanks for pointing that out. They have my complete trust and confidence in every situation. I take exception to anyone implying that anyone on Nicholas' team was trying to mislead me. Electricfan, I'm sorry if you'd had some sh*tty experiences with car dealers but please don't project your experience onto mine. They are worlds apart.

 

[Fxyz]

In my case, car was parked for 9 hours outside. Went into the car, and started the AC before driving. It was blowing hot ambient air so I thought it will start cooling in couple of minutes but it did not. I started changing the setting after 5 minutes while driving on the local street and nothing. Got on the freeway and drove in normal afternoon commuting time 91 Freeway speed in the carpool lane (If you see a slow Model S on 91 it is probably me). I think 110 Deg temperature was the only factor that was different than all the other days.

 

[Electric700]

My vehicle is with Buena Park SC as of this morning. We'll see what they come back with but I did get the speech about AC cooling the battery. Regardless, they took my time logs and are diagnosing. This is unacceptable as it's supposed to be our family car and having a 3 year kid in a carseat at 110F is asinine.

Since I'm 3 weeks new CPO I just keep emphasizing that to the service guy because I'm sure after you're old the service guys dont care as much.

If I get a final answer that it's normal and nothing requiring fixing, I'm not sure what I will do. But I've started a log for documentation purposes.

When it happened to me, we stopped for almost 30 minutes, ran the reboots, and it still didnt fix it. Total duration of hot air was about 2 - 2.5 hours.

2.5 hours of hot air is abnormal, I feel for you in this hot weather. Did they do all of the checks I previously posted about (again, below)? Also, did you try starting up your AC from the app 15 minutes before you got in your car?

I wonder if the air conditioning radiators need to be cleaned in your car to help improve the performance of the system? Tesla Service should be able to check/clean those for you, and your filter as well. While they're at it, they should check your refrigerant pressure(s) too.

 

[Fxyz]

Talked to Chris from Buena Park SC. He is the person I spoke with last time. He just reconfirmed the AC redirect to battery. He also forwarded the AC issue to the engineering department. Hopefully engineering can figure out better cycling schema to cool the battery and people.

 

[davie_100]

2.5 hours of hot air is abnormal, I feel for you in this hot weather. Did they do all of the checks I previously posted about (again, below)? Also, did you try starting up your AC from the app 15 minutes before you got in your car?

I wonder if the air conditioning radiators need to be cleaned in your car to help improve the performance of the system? Tesla Service should be able to check/clean those for you, and your filter as well. While they're at it, they should check your refrigerant pressure(s) too.

Yes one thing in my scenario was that I did try to use the climate cooling feature on the app. It was my first time using it. Not sure if I gave it the full 15 minutes or something closer to 10 minutes. Not sure if it makes a difference.

I do not doubt they will go through all the necessary doagnostics. Hope to hear about my vehicle soon.

 

[DavidN]

Nicholas and his group provide the best service experience I have ever encountered, and thanks for pointing that out. They have my complete trust and confidence in every situation. I take exception to anyone implying that anyone on Nicholas' team was trying to mislead me. Electricfan, I'm sorry if you'd had some sh*tty experiences with car dealers but please don't project your experience onto mine. They are worlds apart.

I will strongly second AmpedRealtor's thoughts on Scottsdale SC. In almost two years of occasional interactions with the Scottsdale SC, my experiences, with everyone from Nicholas to the techs moving cars around for service, has been nothing but enjoyable and thoroughly professional. They have gone out of their way to accommodate my concerns, real and imagined, and have truly gone above and beyond my expectations. My only other SC experience has been with Salt Lake City who fit me in with 3 hours notice to look at a tire problem that was not Tesla's. They also were an absolute pleasure to work with. While I occasionally see complaints on these threads of less than satisfactory SC experiences, I cannot believe they are an accurate reflection of the vast majority of the service community.

 

[Electricfan]

No alerts.



Nothing of the kind. Tesla diagnosed my issue specifically by examining the car's logs. I provided them with the day and approximate time when the issue occurred. They reviewed my logs within 24 hours and responded back that the behavior was normal and they could see the cooling being diverted to other systems without any faults. I was driving at 85 MPH in 115-118 degree heat from Vegas to Phoenix at the time. I have never in the past three years driven under those conditions, and in all three years of ownership the AC performance was reduced just this one time and only for 5 minutes - out of 47,000 miles driven.

The AC was maintaining a 70 degree internal temperature and blew warm-ish air for 5 minutes, which probably raised the interior temp to 75 degrees before it resumed blowing ice cold air. No babies died during my trip. Or puppies.



^^ 100% true, thank you. Tesla confirmed no issues, no abnormal behavior. I even mentioned the dummy sensor and they told me that was not the issue, in my case it was a simple matter of the car trying its best to manage all of its cooling needs. I imagine driving 5 hours in 118º heat at 80-90 MPH is not something most people do on a regular basis.



Nicholas and his group provide the best service experience I have ever encountered, and thanks for pointing that out. They have my complete trust and confidence in every situation. I take exception to anyone implying that anyone on Nicholas' team was trying to mislead me. Electricfan, I'm sorry if you'd had some sh*tty experiences with car dealers but please don't project your experience onto mine. They are worlds apart.

I thought your AC cut off completely. That's what the rest of this thread has been about. Going up to 75 is not a crisis or even something I would have called the service center about if it only happened for 5 minutes.

I'm not projecting my experiences. I'm stating my opinion. To be clear, I do not believe Tesla has designed the car to intentionally cut the AC off to cool the battery and let the cabin go uncooled. And that is not what happened to you (I didn't understand that before, I don't think your earlier post was as clear as this one), so that tends to confirm my belief. Others on this thread are talking about their AC cutting off completely and not cooling the cabin at all. And the idea has been floated that Tesla has told people this is normal under extreme circumstances. I call BS on that. And I question the integrity of any service employee of Tesla who states Tesla designed the car to intentionally cut off the cabin AC to cool the battery. Its just ludicrous. Babies do ride in Teslas, even on hot days. You CANNOT cut the AC off intentionally for any reason. The MOST Tesla could do would be to tell the driver to pull over safely and shut the car down.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I thought your AC cut off completely. That's what the rest of this thread has been about. Going up to 75 is not a crisis or even something I would have called the service center about if it only happened for 5 minutes.

You're the one screaming about dying babies, I never said it was a crisis - please re-read.

 

[Model S M.D.]

I was supercharging on a road trip this past weekend in 100 degree Texas heat. While sitting in the car during supercharging, I noticed hot air only coming out of the AC vents, then I noticed a red exclamation point at the top of my main display. Upon clicking on it, a message came up indicating that the AC was reduced and redirected to cool the battery. I went inside a local restaurant to cool off and came back 5-10 minutes later and the AC was working full blast. Would have been nice to have the option to cool the humans more, as it seemed basically 100% of the air coming from the vents was hot...

 

[Electricfan]

I was supercharging on a road trip this past weekend in 100 degree Texas heat. While sitting in the car during supercharging, I noticed hot air only coming out of the AC vents, then I noticed a red exclamation point at the top of my main display. Upon clicking on it, a message came up indicating that the AC was reduced and redirected to cool the battery. I went inside a local restaurant to cool off and came back 5-10 minutes later and the AC was working full blast. Would have been nice to have the option to cool the humans more, as it seemed basically 100% of the air coming from the vents was hot...

I wonder if my car has done it and I didn't notice. If you see this message again please take a photo and post. I certainly will if I see it.

Has anybody ever heard of an ICE vehicle that intentionally cut off AC to the cabin to divert it to some other part of the car? I think if this is happening it's unique to EVs, and maybe Tesla. And if word gets out that the Tesla's AC cuts off to cool the battery, leaving the cabin temp to rise uncontrolled, well that will be as big as the fires were I think. Very bad publicity. If Tesla really does this they need to fix it - install a more capable AC, or an AC strictly dedicated to the battery with another strictly dedicated to the cabin. Heating the cabin and passengers to cool the battery (which is essentially what they're doing) is not going to fly in public opinion.

 

[Model S M.D.]

I wonder if my car has done it and I didn't notice. If you see this message again please take a photo and post. I certainly will if I see it.

Has anybody ever heard of an ICE vehicle that intentionally cut off AC to the cabin to divert it to some other part of the car? I think if this is happening it's unique to EVs, and maybe Tesla. And if word gets out that the Tesla's AC cuts off to cool the battery, leaving the cabin temp to rise uncontrolled, well that will be as big as the fires were I think. Very bad publicity. If Tesla really does this they need to fix it - install a more capable AC, or an AC strictly dedicated to the battery with another strictly dedicated to the cabin. Heating the cabin and passengers to cool the battery (which is essentially what they're doing) is not going to fly in public opinion.

I totally agree with you. My wife and I got really hot in that car! I will take a picture next time I see the message. Luckily, Collin Street Bakery at the Corsicana supercharger was open so we could go inside to cool off. If we had kids/baby in the car that would be a whole different story....

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Has anybody ever heard of an ICE vehicle that intentionally cut off AC to the cabin to divert it to some other part of the car? I think if this is happening it's unique to EVs, and maybe Tesla. And if word gets out that the Tesla's AC cuts off to cool the battery, leaving the cabin temp to rise uncontrolled, well that will be as big as the fires were I think. Very bad publicity. If Tesla really does this they need to fix it - install a more capable AC, or an AC strictly dedicated to the battery with another strictly dedicated to the cabin. Heating the cabin and passengers to cool the battery (which is essentially what they're doing) is not going to fly in public opinion.

Wow, chicken little...

 

[RatRace]

With my 5 minute issue and 15 minute intervals of A/C shutting down, I finally called Tesla with the time line and they checked the logs. They were able to find that the displacement sensor is malfunctioning and that I need to bring it in for either re calibration or replacement which it currently is.

Tesla center also asked if I used the super charger before checking the logs as they are well aware of the issue and involvement of a complete different sensor.

 

[davie_100]

Just clarifying, during my original issue I never saw any warning or exclamation point.

Car still in the SC since Friday. Either they found something or it's just too backlogged. Either case I'm happy that they take their time and do it right. My loaner P85 isn't too shabby either. Probably will get an update by end of today.

 

[davie_100]

Just clarifying, during my original issue I never saw any warning or exclamation point.

Car still in the SC since Friday. Either they found something or it's just too backlogged. Either case I'm happy that they take their time and do it right. My loaner P85 isn't too shabby either. Probably will get an update by end of today.

Car is back. Replaced the dummy sensor and some A/C likes which they said were damaged and so freon wasnt flowing in the volume expected. The logs did show that the A/C was pulled to the battery but they did state that the 2 hr outage was a symptom of the sensor and lines not functioning nominally, not the normal battery cooling.

Hope this will be the end of the issue.